School run causes congestion (and other popular motoring myths)

Motoring folklore has it that the driving experience is but a shadow of its former self. In the good old days: Tarmac was better laid and maintained; Parking wardens understood the need to stop illegally and would politely walk away without issuing a ticket; Police officers understood that speeding was not a ‘real crime’ and would turn a blind eye. Roads were clear. Life was good.

It may be that all these things are true, but it has never been the case that the school run is a root cause of congestion. of course, it's a relatively new phenomena, but this doesn't stop people - even today - claiming that we can solve the problem of congested roads simply by getting children to walk or cycle to school. There are huge benefits to children, not to mention society as a whole, in enabling people of all ages using active travel to get to and from work (after all, school is a child's office - they have no less, or more, right to be in a car at peak times than anyone else), but one of the fundamental rules of traffic is that it fills road capacity.

Clean-air campaigners have written this week to the government calling for a ban on parents driving their children to school in an attempt to cut down on toxic levels of air pollution. While it's true that hundreds of thousands of children were being exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution outside schools, colleges and nurseries, banning school run traffic is short term fix. If every child started walking to school then by next year there would be no lull in traffic levels over the summer holidays – the extra road space would quickly be filled by business and commuter traffic.

Close the roads around schools at peak times in order to tackle road danger by all means, but to imagine the measure will reduce air pollution in any meaningful sense is naive and underplays the gravity of the situation. Over 40,000 people die prematurely in Britain every year as a result of air pollution. The situation is so dire that Britain has been referred to Europe’s highest court for it's failure to tackle illegal levels of air pollution. We look likely to face a significant fine. Wouldn't it be wiser to spend that money on measures that help us all get out of our cars?

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